Mini Music Reviews: New Release Roundup Vol 1

Don’t call it a comeback. More coming, too.

Reviews for the time-challenged:

Big Star – Keep an Eye on the SkyThis kicks any record off any desert island list I’ve made in the past. There’s so much on this collection that I hadn’t heard, all of it good -and I call myself a fan — that my skull cracked open from such pop delicacy. These guys threw away demos and songs most bands would suffer amputation to have back.

Mission of Burma – The Sound the Speed the LightSometimes it’s so hard to say goodbye. But goodbye.

Lou Barlow — Goodnight UnknownI can’t get enough of this record. It sounds great, and LB smartly varies the instrumentation for his best batch of songs since Sebadoh called it a day.

The Clientele – Bonfires on the HeathI always knew they had a funky drummer underneath their Al Stewart-sings-for-the-Zombies wistfulness. A nice style reinvention. May I have some more, sir?

Reigning Sound – Love and CursesThe second-best garage-rock record you’ll buy this year, next year, or last year.

Marmoset – Tea TornadoDon’t sleep on ’em. Their albums of about ten years ago populate my lost-and-unfairly-unsung files along with the likes of Ganger and Polvo. Creepy post-pop with a Pavement influence.

Sally Shapiro – My Guilty PleasureNot as boringly pleasurable as her nuwave disco throwback debut, but I admire this one more for its dark impulses and colder tones. Still forgettable, overall.

Yacht – See Mystery LightsI don’t see it. Trusted people recommend this, so I’ll give it a second shot, but there’s no there there. In a year, no one will listen to this.

Robert Pollard – Elephant JokesA good one! He makes so many, that’s all you need to know.

Kings of Convenience – Declaration of DependenceSimon and Garfunkel via Jobim. Alright, I’m down, but KoC increasingly risks outright soft rock, even if this sounds wonderful at dusk while making dinner in an empty house.

Yo La Tengo – Popular SongsNot among their usual excellence. I’m trying. Really. But it hurts.

Cold Cave – Love Comes CloseIn the top five for 2009 so far. For me to enjoy the bloopy bleepy, it has to sound DIY and misguided. The tone is retro, even 8-bit, but the song composition is far-thinking, fun, and spooky-good.

The Soft Pack (formerly The Muslims) — s/tDidn’t get booked much under the original name, ay guys? And you wimped out? No matter. You’ve made a dynamite rock record. Stay snotty.

Delorean – Ayrton Senna EPBelieve the hype. Like a Lighting Seeds album covered by Cut Copy.

JJ – No2Nah. A wind blew, and this left my memory forever.

Skygreen Leopards – Gorgeous JohnnyLess a keeper than their last record, Gorgeous Johnny suffers from a case of the Accessibles, or the high stakes disease, and thus we get the Straight Folksy, sans weird.

Dodos – Time to DieQuality aside, is this truthfully a new album? I can’t tell it apart from the previous release.

Jay Reatard – Watch me FallFall you did, but I’ll keep watching.

Jandek -Skirting the EdgeWhatever’s said, you can’t listen to him alone while drinking, or you’ll kill yourself. No other artist can claim that.

The Clean – Mister Pop&The Bats – The Guilty OfficeYou can have your anti-folk, your glo-fi. For me, the prettiest two albums this year hail from roughly 30-year old groups from New Zealand who also share bassist Robert Scott. The Clean improve upon their relaxed yet ornate altar ego, al la “Unknown Country,” and the Bats continue the lush, elegaic ballads of “Couchmaster.” Punch me with kiwi.

Future of the Left – Travels With Myself and AnotherThere is no better album of abrasive, catchy, and funny post-rock also named after a memoir by war correspondent Martha Gellhorn. Few albums of anything else, this year, were better. Mclusky, I gladly hail your fading memory.

The Fiery Furnaces – I’m Going AwayPlease do.

Bibio – Ambivalence AvenueWhat street is this?

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus PhoenixLike a pop music bon-bon. Radiohead gets high on Steely Dan’s stash. I like it, but I need a shower.

Julianna Barwick – FlorineI’m won over by choral oddness. Less Enya, thank god, than it is Kate Bush, but it sings a fine, fine line.

Gossip – Music for MenLike their name, there’s no good reason for them. But like their name, I enjoy Gossip now and then. Someone who thinks they’re hip will recommend this to you in about four months.

A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Ashes GrammarMy goodness: a winner of swirling, atmospheric psychedelicism. I still haven’t absorbed it fully, but that’s my fault, not theirs.

The XXAnother guilty pleasure, this one a studied-cool batch of hip-hop inspired guitar lounge with spookiness produced-in. Young Marble Giants with an Aaliyah fetish after too many Cure records.

Grizzly Bear – While You Wait for the Others (feat. Michael McDonald) [single]I love them for this. Although an obvious career-restarter-coup by MM’s agent, I’ll take this ex-Doobie Brother’s low register take on GB’s melt-rock.

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2 thoughts on “Mini Music Reviews: New Release Roundup Vol 1”

Yay! Welcome back. I suspected the kinder, gentler Jay would piss you off.

I don't get the Dodos. I'll have to check out Delorean and the new Clientele, but not until I get around to the Lou Barlow and survive a second PTA-type school meeting in one day, which is almost as dangerous as drinking alone while listening to Jandek.

More coming soon, eh? I'll believe it when I see it. The world needs more of your snark. Glad you liked A Sunny Day in Glasgow, too. Truest thing you wrote here, regarding Yacht: “In a year, no one will listen to this.”